The World Health Organization and the absolute majority of professional associations have recognized that improper diet, in particular the high calorie content of the diet, the abundance of carbohydrates and fats, and the deficit of dietary fibers, as the main cause of the development and frequency of most non-transmittable diseases, the so-called civilization-accompanying diseases (myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, atherosclerosis, essential hypertension, cholelithiasis, irritable bowels syndrome, obesity, diabetes mellitus, etc.).
During the world history, the origins of diseases, morbidity, and protection against diseases have always been dependent on the mode of life and diet. The same holds true today. The early populations of humans were hunters and collectors and the reason for the most frequent cause of their morbidity was malnutrition due to starvation episodes. In the beginning of the agricultural period, the transition from collecting and hunting to farming and animal husbandry made the episodes of starvation less frequent. However, the less dynamic mode of life resulted in a growth of infectious and parasitic diseases, frequently associated with chronic malnutrition. Nutrient deficiency increased because of the monotonous diet, especially in wintertime.
Infectious diseases were the main causes of morbidity and mortality during most of the periods of human existence. In the last century, especially during the last decades, the rate of infectious and parasitic, or transmittable diseases, has significantly decreased. The decrease can be ascribed to a rise in the level of education, growth of incomes, industrialization, urbanization, and advances in medical and public health care technologies.
Along with this reduction of infectious and parasitic diseases, there has been a dramatically increase in the rate of non-transmittable diseases or medical conditions, which are now some of the leading causes of mortality. These medical conditions include: myocardial infarction; stenocardia, atherosclerosis, essential hypertension, cholelithiasis, irritable bowels syndrome, obesity, diabetes mellitus, etc. These medical conditions are also known as the civilization-associated diseases because their occurrences are closely associated to changes in the mode of life and living conditions. Incidences of civilization-associated diseases are becoming more frequent. It may be assumed that changes in the mode of life and living conditions may be the main causes of the development of these diseases and may be significant factors of pathogenesis. Changes in the mode of life serve as the basis for the formation and progress of civilization-associated diseases that manifest themselves (or are clinically revealed) in later stages of development when their involution is limited or impossible. At that stage an active drug therapy or surgical treatment is required. Treatments at later stages of the disease generally are more expensive, on the one hand, and are frequently associated with complications that frequently are dangerous to life and dramatically affect the standard of living.
Statistically, the major civilization-associated diseases include metabolic disorders and atherosclerosis, which are usually treated surgically (prosthetics of blood vessels, coronary artery bypass grafting, stenting of blood vessels, etc). These treatments are rather costly and the rate of lethality is high.
From 10 to 15 percent of the world population suffers from cholelithiasis and this number is constantly growing. Each decade of the last 50 years the number of people with cholelithiasis has doubled. To treat the disease, cholecystectomy (excise of gallbladder) is being applied more often. However, such treatment is associated with postoperative complications, digestion and metabolic disorders, development of colon cancer, etc. According to various statistics, in 31 to 72 percent of cases, the post-operated gallbladder nevertheless forms gallstones.
The World Health Organization considers obesity to be an epidemic. Weight loss is one of the decisive factors for treatment and management of the most widespread diseases today. Very often obesity is being treated by means of a reconstructive surgery, which is expensive and is frequently associated with complications.
The weight loss may bring forth negative results without reconstructive surgery as well. Investigations performed at 31 weight management centers in the USA demonstrated that in 28 percent of the 1004 patients, who during 16 weeks, for the purpose of weight loss, were given 520 kilocalories/day in the form of liquid proteins, in the absence of preventive measures, their gallbladders nevertheless form gallstones/concrements.
In order to prevent and/or treat diseases, a patient may have to take chemical drugs, for example statins, chemo drugs, and antidiabetic, antianginal, or hypotensive medications as well as other drugs for a long period or his whole life. Such chemical treatments are had at considerable expenses. These preparations have shown side effects and contraindications, due to which their application is limited. Together with the long clinical course their doses increase revealing changes caused by their side effects that further is a separate problem.
Epidemiologic transformation of diseases, in the first place, is connected with nutrition transformation linked with production of foodstuffs, technologies of production, distribution, availability, changes in dietary habits and physical activities (Glob.).
The industrialization during the last 200 years caused the radical changes in food production, transportation, storage and distribution (Glob.). The economic development together with technological innovations and modern capabilities of marketing caused significant changes to the food content. A quantity of easily assimilated refined carbohydrates and saturated fats has increased in a diet while the quantity of dietary fibers has sharply reduced (Glob.).
Popkin (2002) discusses differences of nutrition transformation between the developed and developing countries. He separated a number of common components characterizing the nutrition transformation in the countries of low and average incomes and concluded that those deviations, in the West of 100-200 years ago, will again occur in the developing world of the last decades.
The incursion of the western habits, for example ways of life and commercial marketing, in developing countries furthers a transfer from the traditional foodstuffs to cheap fats and refined carbohydrates, which are readily available thanks to the globalization. Demographic changes caused by the prolongation of life and reduction of birth rate have a greater impact on the risk factors of the diseases become more urgent, of which improper nutrition is the most important (Glob.).
Analysis of the statistical data accumulated in the 20th century has shown the civilization-associated noncontagious diseases to be most frequent in the countries where the population consumes food rich in calories, refined carbohydrates, and fats, and consumes foods poor in dietary fibers.
Dietary fibers contain non-starch polysaccharides and lignin (Beyul E. A. Class. Med. 1987 No 2). In comparison with starch these polysaccharides are not digested by the digestive enzymes and are utilized by the small and large intestines. For that reason from the early 19th century and up to the 1960's of the 20th century dietary fibers were considered an unnecessary component of food and they even were called the ballast substance. The focus shifted to technologies wherein dietary fibers were separated from the plant stock to produce high-calorie, easily assimilated, refined carbohydrates and fats.
This direction had its opponents. In 1861 the German chemist and nutritionist Justus von Liebig wrote that the separation of bran by sieving of the wheat flour was an excess luxury and that bread baked from groats was more wholesome than white bread. The public and scholars of that time viewed such a statement as absurd. Presently, it has been recognized that Liebig was right.
Both experimental and clinical investigations have proved that dietary fibers regulate digestion and metabolism and act as a physiological stimulator of digestive secretion and gastrointestinal motor activity. As a physiological choleretic, dietary fibers normalize intrarectal pressure, improve hepatoenteral cycle of bile acids, bring forth the sense of satiety, prevent the absorption of exogenous cholesterol, and excrete toxins and other waste products. Therefore, to ensure normal digestion and metabolism, food should contain dietary fibers.
Based on the above, one of the leading ways to prevent and treat the most widespread diseases (myocardial infarction, stenocardia, atherosclerosis, essential hypertension, cholelithiasis, irritable bowels syndrome, obesity, diabetes mellitus, etc.) is to use the practical solution to restrict calorie intake, increase consumption of dietary fibers, and increase dietary fiber content in the diet.
Due to the above, it is logical to assume that at present one of the urgent issues of medicine is the prevention and early treatment of the civilization-associated diseases without chemical preparations and surgical interventions. It is commonly accepted that wholesome food and proper nutrition are among the main means for preventing and early treating. Contemporary principles of proper nutrition undoubtedly employ the limitation of calories at the expense of refined fats and carbohydrates and making up for the deficiency of dietary fibers. It has been ascertained that for the purpose of normal functioning of the organism and prevention of the above diseases, healthy adults should take a minimum of 35-40 g of dietary fiber daily. Children should take more than 5 g daily (Marlett J A 2002). At the same time, low-calorie and dietary fiber-rich food is one of the main components in the treatment of these diseases.
Disorders caused by the deficiency of dietary fibers, and the preventive and therapeutic effect based upon making up of this deficit, has repeatedly proved that the statements by Hippocratus said some twenty-five centuries ago, “do not harm” and “food must be a medication and take drug in the form of food” are still true.
For a modern interpretation of the first statement of Hippocratus (“do not harm”) it is necessary to take into account that products rich in dietary fibers are coarse and difficult-to-digest in the unprocessed form. Taking them unprocessed (grain hulls, rinds of fruit and vegetables, berries, etc.) irritates the mucous coat of the stomach, and causes unwanted stimulation of secretion and the motor and evacuation function. Because of the above, the making up of the dietary fibers deficit with unprocessed products containing them in excessive quantities, tablets and granules that contain unprocessed cells is restricted both quantitatively and in time and is, in some cases, even contraindicative. The problem became especially acute in the late 20th century and the early 21st century, for the consumption of food prepared by the widespread new technologies. Contemporary man, in comparison with his ancestors, is less adapted to consume such coarse food, and the number of patients for whom coarse food is contraindicated is large.
The perfection of the mechanical and thermal processing of food products (sterilization, manufacturing of refined food, concentrated juices) and the invasion of unnatural substances (preservatives) in cookery have significantly reduced the spread of infectious and parasitic diseases and have extended the shelf-life of food. On the other hand, these technological advances changed the content of the foodstuffs, reduced their beneficial properties, and made them unnatural, which in turn has affected the physiological processes, causing digestive and metabolic disorders. The taking of such unnatural food affects the physiological (natural) protective mechanisms of the human organism, making them unable to regulate digestion and metabolism, which is the basis for development of a number of diseases.
There is a ground cereal product (GE Patent 1205, G. Sulaberidze, B. Rachvelishvili, 17 Feb. 1998) comprised of grain flour and mechanically processed bran. Bread prepared from the ground cereal product is used as a wholesome dietary fiber-rich food. There is an improved method for preparing dough from ground cereal product (GE Patent 2881, G. Sulaberidze, 25 Feb. 2003). Bread made of the dough prepared using the method also represents a wholesome dietary fiber-rich food without side effects and contraindications.
From the present state of the art there is no known application of the above ground cereal product and/or finished foodstuff made from it independently or in combination with other foodstuff for the purpose of prevention and treatment of digestion, metabolism and other related diseases. It should, however, be noted that use of the said products for treatment and preventive purposes as the sole foodstuff is inadvisable, for it is connected with the risk of developing a deficiency of proteins, vitamins, microelements.